Simple Jewish Holiday Recipes: Baba Ghanoush

December is a busy month. It is filled with holidays, vacations and family gatherings. With all the elaborate meals and snacks that you have to cook from scratch during December, it is sometimes nice to find simple snack recipes to treat your guests’ taste buds with that won’t take you hours to prepare. One such recipe is the one for Baba Ghanoush.

Baba Ghanoush is a simple dip recipe that is made from roasted eggplant and Tahini. Eggplant is a vegetable that is related to the tomato plant. The flesh of the eggplant is very absorbent and has a tendency to take on the flavors of the ingredients that it is cooked with. It has a slightly bitter taste when raw, but once cooked it can be quite succulent. Tahini is the second main ingredient in Baba Ghanoush. It is made from roasted sesame seeds that have been ground into a paste. This adds a smoky depth to this dip. (Keep in mind that this recipe refers to the Middle Eastern Tahini which uses roasted sesame seeds, and not the Asian Tahini which uses unroasted sesame seeds.)

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients

Directions

Rinse and pat dry your eggplants.

Roast the eggplant until the flesh is soft and can easily be pierced by a fork.

Scoop out the soft flesh of the eggplant into a mixing bowl. Stir in a teaspoon of minced garlic, olive oil, Tahini, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Mixed until smooth.

Spoon dip into a serving bowl, garnish with parsley and sesame seeds, pita bread points and veggies.

**If you want to lower the calories and fat in this dish omit the olive oil.

Jewish holiday recipes don’t have to be sweet. Savory dishes like Jewish chicken recipes also make great holiday treats. For more Jewish Recipes return on Friday.

Posted in family jewish recipes | No Comments »

Since I was a little girl our family prided themselves on their family Jewish recipes. In those days no one would dare bring a dish to share because the hostess was in charge of showing off her culinary talents. Now this was never said or written, but I don’t ever remember any of my mother’s sisters or sister-in-laws bringing anything but a box of candy.

When I got older, was working and had a family and invited everyone over to the house with an invitation to bring their favorite recipe my mother was embarrassed and apawled. But it was fun and shared stories about the recipes.

Here is one of my favorite and dedicated to my mother because she loved for me to make this when she visited from Florida.

1 head of organic cauliflower broken into floweretes
1 large yellow onion
raw almonds
2-tablespoons olive oil

Cut the onions in slices.
Sauté in olive oil until transparent.
Add cauliflower floweretes.
Add a couple of tablespoons of water.
Cover. Cook until cauliflower the way you like it and onions are caramelized.
Serve and eat with almonds as your protein.
Season according to your dietary restrictions.

Posted in family jewish recipes | No Comments »